HAUNTING
by thunderbird5
Summary: While investigating an earth quake site in Ceres, South Africa, John experiences some very "STRANGE" things which rais some interesting questions. Will the boys be able to solve mystery? ...


Thanks to TB's LMC for helping me with this story.

**Disclaimer:** How I wish the boys were mine. But no, they belong to someone else.

Dawn was just breaking when we arrived in Ceres/Tulbagh, South Africa. An earthquake had caught the locals by surprise in the early hours of the morning. I had heard that the last earthquake in this area occurred on September the 29th of 1969 and registered 6.3 on the Richter scale. This one had been 8.1. Really...really bad.

We were just about to pack up and head home again when a local woman told me she'd seen a few kids hanging around an old building before the earthquake. I decided to have a look inside the place. After telling Scott about it, I gathered what I needed. Scott informed me that he had scanned the building and found four heat signatures, but they were all fading in and out. He also told me that he'd send Gordon with me. After telling me to be careful, he cleared me to check the building and made the call to Gordon.

I'll admit I'm impatient, so instead of waiting for Gordon to join me I stepped inside the dilapidated building on my own. The moment I entered, I felt a cold chill go up my spine like someone was watching me.

In spite of the creep factor, I was compelled to check this place out and see if I could find those kids. I wished I knew what they were doing here. It was all boarded up, though obviously over the years vandals had ripped some of the wood away. Looking around, I could see that there must have been a fire; only the skeletons of what had once been school desks were left behind. I wondered what had happened here and when. By the look of this place, there must have been a fire either on the day of the '69 earthquake or a few years after. Everything was full of dust and I could see spider webs hanging everywhere, and even a few birds' nests.

Outside, though, the place looked even worse. The parking lot was cracked and I'd had to push my way through a lot of weeds to even get inside.

Walking through the entry hall into the first room on my right, I thought I saw a small girl looking at me from inside of what was once a display case, now lying on its side on the floor. I could see tear tracks on her face. I moved closer. "Hey there, I'm from International Rescue and I'm here to help you, okay?"

Just as I reached the display case the little girl disappeared. Blinking a few times, I wondered if I had really just seen what I thought I'd seen. Maybe she was behind it instead of inside it. Taking hold of the old dusty case, I lifted it until it was upright. No girl.

I laid the case back down and turned around, only to fall over a burned chair. Right there in front of me as I raised my head, were a little boy and girl. But what scared me was the fact that I was looking straight through them to where a door once was! They disappeared as fast as they appeared. This couldn't be real! I had come in here to find some kids, not ghosts! Did I even believe in ghosts?

Getting up from what had once been a linoleum floor, I checked the room with a portable scanner and found no heat signatures. Yet they were there before when Scott had scanned the building...although he _had_ said they'd kept disappearing.

I headed down a hallway which had blackened pictures on its walls. Halfway down the hall something cold fell onto my head. As I lifted my hand to touch it, I heard a child's laughter somewhere in front of me. That's when I saw a little boy smiling at me. I asked, "Are you okay?" as I approached him.

As soon as I was in front of the boy I saw a girl right next to him. They were looking at me in a way that made my skin crawl. Lifting their heads, they spoke with one voice. "Look, Mister, we're burning."

Without warning the two children burst into flames. They laughed, with more voices joining in. I started to run away from this place of horror. Everywhere flames were appearing; no matter how fast I tried to run, the fire moved even faster. I had just made it outside when my foot caught on something. Before I could catch myself, I was down on the ground. The flames were around me along with the boy and girl. I couldn't move, couldn't speak. I was sure that I was going to burn to death.

I felt the heat of the flames as they closed in on me; I had to get up and get moving. Knowing that the fire could set the surrounding grass and weeds ablaze, I lifted my watch to my face while struggling to my feet. "Scott, Virgil! I need help over here, the building's on fire!"

Not waiting for a reply, I ran as fast as I could through a gap in the ring of fire, which was now even closer. I felt so terrified; the laughing kids and the sound of the fire behind me were enough to scare me out of my mind, I'm man enough to admit. I ran across the cracked parking lot, stopping when I reached the edge. The two ghost children were there waiting for me. Backing up a step or two, I realized something was behind me. I whipped around only to find the girl from the display case again. "Hello, Mister. Leaving so soon?"

Her voice was so soft and innocent, yet something told me there was no innocence in any of these kids. I had left them behind in the building and fire and here they were, following me wherever I went. I turned one more time and started running blindly toward where I thought _Thunderbird Two_ was, only to trip over something once again. I don't remember hitting the ground, but the next thing I knew I heard someone calling my name. "John? Wake up."

Waking with a jolt, I found three brothers eyeballing at me. Quickly sitting up, I looked toward the building, which was still on fire. "Scott, fire!"

I could see that my brothers were worried. Scott turned and looked at the building. "Fire? When we got here there was no fire, so we started searching for you. There _was_ a fire here about twenty years or so ago. Apparently it was a small school. A few kids died so the school was closed down."

I saw two small faces smiling at me from a window of the building. If my nightmarish vision was to be believed, I knew that whatever had happened to these kids must have been horrific. If only we had been here all those years ago to save them. "This place is haunted."

Scott smiled as he helped me up. "Haunted? I think you hit your head a bit hard when you fell."

I looked at the building again and saw a small fire near one of the windows. "Look Gordon, Virgil, there in the window to the left!"

Looking to where I was pointing, I could tell by their faces that my brothers couldn't see what I was seeing. Scott started guiding me to _Thunderbird Two_. "I think you need to have a rest; this rescue took a lot out of us."

Damn! My brothers didn't believe me! "Scott, I saw a little girl and soon after another boy and girl. You've got to believe me. I went into that building to find the kids and the place went up in flames along with them. Ask Gordon, maybe he saw the kids, too."

Handing me over to Virgil at the base of the pod's open ramp, Scott was about to say something when he stopped dead in his tracks. I knew what he was seeing...it looked like a little girl watching him from behind the pod. She turned and disappeared round the other side of it. "Hey you, just wait a minute, where are you going?"

Scott headed over to the other side of the pod. When he returned to us, he looked puzzled. "Did you see that little girl behind the pod?"

My brothers shook their heads. I felt a bit relieved that Scott had seen her, too. "Now do you believe me? I've seen them and when I went to either help or talk to them, they just disappeared."

"Well, once you're in _Thunderbird Two_ I'll have one more look back there and then Gordon can help me put the last of our equipment away."

Walking to the elevator which would take us to the cockpit, Virgil looked at me, worried. "If you and Scott saw these kids, how is it they're disappearing when we approach them?"

That was exactly what I was wondering. Stepping out of the elevator, I walked over to a seat, sat myself down and strapped in for the ride home. Virgil was about to sit in his pilot's chair when he saw it, right there where the elevator was still open: a little girl was watching him. What made things worse was that he was looking straight through her...as was I. "Oh, shit!"

I innocently asked, "Did you see something?"

Plopping down onto his chair, Virgil rubbed at his eyes. "Well, I think I've just seen a little girl with a flame in her hands watching me. This is making me feel uneasy."

A chill ran down my spine as I nodded my head. "I feel the same way. I thought you guys really believed that I'd lost it or something."

Out the front cockpit window, Virgil saw Gordon returning with what looked like the last of the equipment. "I'll admit that yes, I did think along those lines at first. But now I'm wondering that about all of us. Are we seeing real children or are we seeing real ghosts?"

When the elevator doors had closed behind Virgil and John, Gordon went out of the pod and straight to where the equipment was lying next to Mobile Control. Picking some of it up, Gordon watched Scott as he went round the back of the pod to check if anyone was hiding there or not. Gordon himself could see no one except for a few rescue workers and some locals, so he turned and carried his load back to _Thunderbird Two_.

Scott had walked the perimeter of _Thunderbird Two_ twice to make sure there was no one hiding behind or inside of its pod. Coming up empty, he headed back to Mobile Control. He informed Alan on _Thunderbird Five_ that they were packing up and would be heading home soon. While waiting for everything to shut down, Scott watched Gordon carry the last of their equipment back to the pod. Then, as he was hauling the Mobile Control unit back to _Thunderbird One_, he felt as if someone was watching him. Shaking his head, he quietly said aloud, "John's made me paranoid."

Scott had just about finished putting everything away when he heard a child's laughter coming from his cockpit. It made him jump. Closing the storage hatch and scrambling up the ladder, he got inside and shut that hatch behind him. He found no sign that anyone else been in there. Lifting his watch to his face, he asked, "Alan, is there anyone else near my _Thunderbird?_"

When Alan answered no, Scott frowned. "Okay, can you do me a favor? I want you to pull up any information on this area that you can find and send it to _Thunderbird Two_. Anything about a school or even a mental hospital with children in it." Seeing the confused look on Alan's face he continued, "I'll give you a call tonight and explain it all to you then, okay?"

Scott wasn't sure if he was really seeing and hearing things or if it was some local kids messing around with them. He told Virgil that he'd wait until _Two_ had lifted off and then he would follow them home.

In the pod, Gordon had just put away the last of the equipment when he heard a ball bouncing somewhere behind him. He turned and sure enough, there was a red kids' ball headed right toward him…and nothing else. "Anyone in here?"

Gordon moved to the pod entrance and looked out of it but saw no one. After closing the pod's door and making sure that everything was secure, he was about to head up to the cockpit when he saw a little boy looking at him from the other side of the pod. "Hey, how did you get in here?" He moved closer and held out his hand. "I won't hurt you, okay?"

It felt cold all of a sudden and he shivered. The ball bounced twice high in the air, then rolled toward him. Reaching out to pick it up, he jumped back when it exploded into flames. Wide-eyed, he muttered, "Am I going insane?"

Not wanting to see anything more, Gordon ran straight to the elevator. When the doors opened into the cockpit, he dashed straight to the nearest seat. "Virgil, there's something really weird going on here. I just saw a little boy with a ball in the pod, and the ball exploded into flames."

Turning to the controls of his _Thunderbird_, Virgil checked the panel readouts. "Sensors show no fire in the pod. Are you sure?"

Shivering in my seat, I spoke up. "Look, I've seen those kids and even you guys have seen them now. Why don't we just leave this place and go home?"

Gordon stood, moved over to Virgil and checked the monitors again. "Yes, I've seen the little boy and yes, I agree with John. Why don't we just go home? We can talk about these little ghosts then, if you don't mind."

That said, Gordon returned to the copilot chair and strapped himself in. Not wanting to stay here any longer either, I'm sure, Virgil prepared _Thunderbird Two_ for lift off. "Home it is."

As soon as _Thunderbird Two_ had taken off, Scott prepared his own _Thunderbird_ to follow. Once in the air, he looked down at the building via the external cameras. Nothing was out of place and all was exactly as it had been before they'd landed.

About halfway to Tracy Island, Alan called and told us that he was sending some information that Scott had requested. Once _Thunderbird Two_ received the data, I downloaded it to a memory stick and waited until we were safely back on the Island so we could read it together.

There wasn't much to go on, but enough to tell us that the building had once been a school, as Scott had already conveyed. It was meant for young children from the ages of three to twelve years old, and had been built a few months after the earthquake in 1969. Then, twenty years ago, disaster struck. No one even knew there was a fire until it was too late for a few of the children. By the time someone had alerted the local fire department, the school was almost totally destroyed. Four children had died that day, one boy and three girls.

After reading this, I knew that the children we saw were the ones who'd died. Looking to where my brothers were standing near our father's desk, I didn't even have to ask them if they believed that they had seen these four children haunting the building. I guess whether or not we all believed in ghosts, we'd gotten a frightening lesson that day: always believe what your eyes are telling you...even if you _don't_ believe what you're seeing.


End file.
